Franklin Graham El Paso Festival Venue Moved to Accommodate WNIT Title Game

The UTEP women's basketball team is playing in the NIT Championship game and to accommodate, Franklin Graham has offered to move Saturday's Festival of Hope so the Lady Miners could play in the Don Haskins Center. Watch live at BillyGraham.org/live

It’s hard to not get excited about what’s going on in El Paso, Texas this week.

Over the past few weeks, the Lady Miners have made things a little interesting. In a 13-day span, the UTEP women’s basketball team has reeled off five consecutive wins—including Wednesday night’s 66-63 victory over South Dakota State—and all five in front of the faithful support of the home crowd at the Don Haskins Center.

So, with a conflict of two events at the same venue on the same day—the WNIT Championship between UTEP and Rutgers is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET)—Franklin Graham has offered to give his full support to the UTEP team and move the Festival to an outdoor location on the UTEP campus.

The new location for Saturday night’s Festival is Glory Field, just north of the football stadium. Sunday night will move back to the Don Haskins Center.

“We want everyone who has been a part of planning this Festival, including more than 200 area churches, to also be a part of UTEP women’s basketball,” Franklin Graham said. “We had to find a new place for our Greater El Paso Festival this weekend, but we were happy to help accommodate this exciting event.”

And to celebrate the Lady Miners’ March Madness run, Franklin Graham is offering free pizza to the first 1,000 students who come to Saturday night’s Festival.

“He’s thrilled that they won,” said Ken Barun, BGEA’s Chief of Staff. “Franklin is making every possible accommodation to move our Festival and encourage us all to cheer on UTEP at their game and then come to our Festival later in that day.”

The Festival of Hope begins at 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET) Saturday (doors open at 4:30) and includes musical guests Thousand Foot Krutch, Flame, Funky and a message of hope from Franklin Graham.

Sunday night’s lineup includes Michael W. Smith and Daniel Calveti. Both nights will also include performances from Mariachi Isai and the Joshua Chavez band.

The bilingual event will include translation into Spanish from the stage.